Churton Park Community Walkers

Newsletter April 21st 2024

Last week’s walks:

The Harbour View/Melling area was the location for our Wednesday walks last week.  13 Pleasure Pacers completed 4.8km, 28 Steady Steppers did up to 5.6km and 25 Fast Footers walked for 6.8km.  On Thursday 6 walkers journeyed around Paparangi/Newlands over a distance of 6.6 km and on Friday 22 walkers completed 11.6km in the Paraparaumu/Nikau Palms area.

Brian Vincent.
Convenor.

A reminder about walking arrangements:

After everyone has arrived at the starting location, each group should confirm its leader and also nominate a ‘tail-end Charlie’.  Please remember the medical kits – there is at least one for each group – and a reminder to take photographs. These allow us to record that day’s walkers in each group.  Please forward these by email.

Finally, just a reminder to swap telephone numbers amongst those with whom you travel to the starting point each week. A handy back-up for any late changes to arrangements.

Reminder:   Please ensure that you inform your group’s leader if you leave a walk partway through.

Walk Details for Wednesday 24th April 2024. 

This Week's Walks: 

It is still school holidays so we will have another trip to town hoping that the holidays mean that the traffic is lighter.  Google suggests travelling time from Churton Park is about 30 minutes.  With a 9.25am departure time for the walks from Miramar, anybody leaving from Churton Park should aim to leave before 8.50 (or earlier, to allow for rush hour contingencies).  Try to ensure that you have a contact number for others in your group so that you can call if you get held up in traffic.

This week's walks are based in Miramar, all starting at Crawford Green in Miramar.  All three walks are new, but the FF walk does take in some territory that has been covered a few times in the past.

PPs:  A 4.05km loop walk using the flat streets of Miramar.  This walk takes in the shops and passes playing fields before heading back to the starting point at Crawford Green. You can see the walk here.

SSs:   A 5.68km loop walk taking in the flat streets of Miramar, but there is one reasonably long, but not too steep, hill.  You can see the walk here.

FFs: A 6.81km loop through the tunnel and into Seatoun, along the Eastern Walkway and back into Miramar and a return to Crawford Green.  Of course there are a couple of hills.  You can see the walk on Mapometer here and on PlotaRoute here.

Parking: Head towards Wellington Airport and just before the airport take the first exit at the roundabout near the Z petrol station, turning onto Broadway.  Proceed along Broadway until you find Crawford Green on the left.  Crawford Green is an avenue that encircles a park of the same name and it has two intersections with Broadway.  The second intersection is best as this enables kerbside parking on the street without needing U turns.  There is more than ample parking on the street alongside the park.

Coffee: Café is an individual choice - nothing is booked.  There are a couple of cafés in the nearby Broadway shops, some in Miramar’s main shopping area and others on the way home.  Of course there is Simmer back at Churton Park. 

Russell Paterson

Website

When you open the website to view your walk have a quick look at the “Home Page”  This usually has new images each week showing views from one of our walks.

Cancellation

If the walks are cancelled an email will be sent out as early as possible but definitely before 8:00am.

Walk Schedules

You can look at the walk schedule for May 2024 here. 

Photos

Walkers - please try and take a photo of each group on walking days and email them to this link.  Preferably small size (around 450kb).  It has been great to receive a larger number of photos from PPs and SSs - keep them coming, please!

		CPCW Photos
		On Wednesday a total of 66 walkers set off from near Melling Station and travelled north along the Hutt River (PPs) or up the hill and around Harbour View/Tirohanga (SSs & PPs).  Here is the gathered  SS group - thanks to Paul Alpe for this photo:
		And the intrepid FFs defying road rules yet again!  (Photo - Bill Gaudie.)
		And watching their step as they descend bush tracks - photos courtesy of Hue Ng:
		Unfortunately, no photos were received from the PPs or from Thursday's walkers.
		On Friday, the walking group headed up the hill through the Hadfield Reserve near Lindale, north of Paraparaumu.  This reserve is noted for its nikau palms (and its steep steps!). The walkers then headed along Nikau Valley, along the Bright Ridge Skyline Track, down into the eastern portions of Paraparaumu and then retraced their steps to the cars for a picnic.   The following two groups of photos are thanks to Gay & Murray Hoffman:
		"X marks the spot" for Gary & Barry; Jane revisited her second childhood and then struggled to get off!
		And just to prove that what goes down must come up! (Photos Bill Gaudie)
		Just For Fun This week's humour is courtesy of Alison Lavin: The Bathtub Test During a visit to my doctor I asked him "How do you determine whether or not an older person should be put in an old age home?"     "Well", he said, "we fill up a bathtub, then we offer a teaspoon, a teacup and a bucket to the person and ask them to empty the bathtub." "Oh, I understand!", I said.  "A normal person would use the bucket because it is bigger than the spoon or the teacup." "No", he said.  "A normal person would pull the plug.  Do you want a bed near the window?" Are you going to pass this on .... or do you want the bed next to mine?

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